ssed scarcely a night in fifteen years. There were about
forty, more or less, regular callers. The remainder of the line was
formed of strangers. In times of panic and unusual hardships there were
seldom more than three hundred. In times of prosperity, when little is
heard of the unemployed, there were seldom less. The same number,
winter and summer, in storm or calm, in good times and bad, held this
melancholy midnight rendezvous at Fleischmann's bread box.

At both of these two charities, during the severe winter which was now
on, Hurstwood was a frequent visitor. On one occasion it was peculiarly
cold, and finding no comfort in begging about the streets, he waited
until noon before seeking this free offering to the poor. Already, at
eleven o'clock of this morning, several such as he had shambled forward
out of Sixth Avenue, their thin clothes flapping and fluttering in the
wind. They leaned against the iron railing which protects the walls of
the Ninth Regiment Armory, which fronts upon that section of Fifteenth
Street, having come early in order to be first in. Having an hour to
wait, they at first lingered at a respectful distance; but others coming
up, they moved closer in order to protect their right of precedence. To
this collection Hurstwood came up from the west out of Seventh Avenue
and stopped close to the door, nearer than all the others. Those who
had been waiting before him, but farther away, now drew near, and by a
certain stolidity of demeanour, no words being spoken, indicated that
they were first.

Seeing the opposition to his action, he looked sullenly along the
line, then moved out, taking his place at the foot. When order had been
restored, the animal feeling of opposition relaxed.

"Must be pretty near noon," ventured one.

"It is," said another. "I've been waiting nearly an hour."

"Gee, but it's cold!"

They peered eagerly at the door, where all must enter. A grocery man
drove up and carried in several baskets of eatables. This started some
words upon grocery men and the cost of food in general.

"I see meat's gone up," said one.

"If there wuz war, it would help this country a lot."

The line was growing rapidly. Already there were fifty or more,
and those at the head, by their demeanour, evidently congratulated
themselves upon not having so long to wait as those at the foot. There
was much jerking of heads, and looking down the line.

"It don't matter how near you get to the front,